Do you regularly pray with people to receive the Lord at the close of your services? A growing number of pastors do not. I think they would be better off if they changed their practice.
Recently, I spoke in a church in Nancy, France. It was a Sunday morning worship celebration. It was also the finale [...]

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When training leaders I like to think in three terms: Relationship. Apprenticeship. Succession.
Relationship
Any small group is all about relationships. Most learning in the group comes in the form of give and take among the members. So why not train leaders the same way?
I’ve tried to train small group leaders in classes without much success–unless the [...]

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How are your expectations? What emotions do you go through when planning an event or devising a new system to reach people with your message? Does your team experience highs going in only to be followed by emotional lows that one more idea didn’t really work?
Avoiding Let-Downs
If pastoral ministry offers too many let-downs, you might [...]

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I just finished taking our congregation through a modified version of Rick Warren’s “Forty Days of Purpose.” The experience was hugely rewarding with good numeric growth, but even stronger spiritual growth among the men of our congregation.
The process includes reading Rick’s very prophetic book “The Purpose Driven Life.” We got the congregation through it once [...]

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My ears were red. I stood in an old fashioned choir loft. The room was filled with kids. The youth evangelist had just about every one of them on the ground at the front of the room. They were there to pray for every thing you can imagine. Trouble was—most were peaking at one another [...]

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Planting churches and pastoring the flock of God is very important work. It is the one of the greatest investments most of us will ever make. But, there is another call on our lives that is even more important. That is putting time into our families.
Just Too Busy
All too often, I see young pastors so [...]

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